Timing strategies? Forum

[aj58]

So I took my first diagnostic during the middle of last month and received a 145. I was not thrilled about this score but at the same time I was not to disappointed seeing as I had never even seen an LSAT question before the first diagnostic. After about a month of studying I would consistently miss about 3-5 questions per 25 questions I attempted on logical reasoning and for each reading compression passage I would miss around 2 questions, (I am struggling with logic games but getting better). After taking the second diagnostic I expected to increase my score seeing as I was scoring only about 50% on reading comprehension and 50% on logical reasoning but I saw no such increase, and my score actually went down a couple points. The prep class instructor said this is normal because we have not focused much on timing yet. The day after I took the test I started to do sets of 25 questions on logical reasoning and sets of 4 on reading comprehension but this time I was timing myself. After doing these timed sessions my score was around what it was on the diagnostic. I seem to have gotten the fundamentals down but I am having difficulty answering the questions correctly in the 35 minute time period. I guess my questions are; Does anyone have any strategies to answer the questions quickly while at the same time fully comprehending the questions and all of the answers? How long should I expect it to take (weeks, months...) to get the timing down? And if I am taking the October LSAT is a score of 160 feasible? Thank you.

[Jack Smirks]

So I took my first diagnostic during the middle of last month and received a 145. I was not thrilled about this score but at the same time I was not to disappointed seeing as I had never even seen an LSAT question before the first diagnostic. After about a month of studying I would consistently miss about 3-5 questions per 25 questions I attempted on logical reasoning and for each reading compression passage I would miss around 2 questions, (I am struggling with logic games but getting better). After taking the second diagnostic I expected to increase my score seeing as I was scoring only about 50% on reading comprehension and 50% on logical reasoning but I saw no such increase, and my score actually went down a couple points. The prep class instructor said this is normal because we have not focused much on timing yet. The day after I took the test I started to do sets of 25 questions on logical reasoning and sets of 4 on reading comprehension but this time I was timing myself. After doing these timed sessions my score was around what it was on the diagnostic. I seem to have gotten the fundamentals down but I am having difficulty answering the questions correctly in the 35 minute time period. I guess my questions are; Does anyone have any strategies to answer the questions quickly while at the same time fully comprehending the questions and all of the answers? How long should I expect it to take (weeks, months...) to get the timing down? And if I am taking the October LSAT is a score of 160 feasible? Thank you.

A 160 is possible but I would suggest not worrying about timing yet and going back and building a stronger foundation. I would do prep tests without a timer or get your hands on the Bibles and work on finding out where you're making mistakes on answer choices and/or question types. Once you build your understanding of the fundamentals, the timing and fine tuning will develop naturally.

[BobbyDigital]

Same issue here. Timing kills me, but as mentioned, you can't expect to breeze through questions faster while at the same time trying to learn it. For me, more practice has cut my time on games in half from around 20 min to 10 min. And that is where I'm stuck.